Are You Fully Utilizing Web-to-Print? Part 2

Last month, this column looked at the current state of Web-to-print. We focused, not so much on the technology, but on the applications that Web-to-print now drives, from true 1:1, database-driven printing to publishing and advertising repurposing. These are not yesterday’s Web-to-print solutions. This is a new crop of solutions that is increasingly flexible, increasingly open, and designed to handle the wide range of workflows and design needs that marketers, creatives, and printers face in today’s complex, multi-channel world.

But it’s not just applications that receive a boost from today’s Web-to-print. Especially if you are driving higher volumes (but even if you are not), the savings that can be achieved using Web-to-print applications, regardless of specific application or niche, can be terrific. Let’s look at a few.

Time Savings

There can be tremendous time saved by using the automation provided by Web-to-print to create, re-size, personalize, and repurpose documents. Although Web-to-print applications generally start with some kind of template, don’t think of “template” as meaning simple. These templates can be highly sophisticated and flexible, but they automate processes that would normally take minutes or hours down to seconds.

Reduction in Fulfillment Errors

Especially in high-volume corporate environments, errors from literature fulfillment alone can be very expensive. This is because literature fulfillment is often handled manually, so error rates can be very high. As reported in “Web-to-Print: Transforming Document Management and Marketing” from Digital Printing Reports, when one travel insurance company, Access America, switched from manual fulfillment to Web-to-print fulfillment, its errors dropped to nearly zero. Agents access the secure Web site, select the style of brochure they want, upload their logo, insert their phone number and Web address, and the system automatically populates the brochure with the correct information. The orders are processed, printed, and shipped daily. Fulfillment errors are almost nonexistent.

Reduction or Elimination of Error and Duplication in the Design Process

Design agencies, distributors, regional offices, and others are often working independently of one another and duplicating their design efforts, with each paying to design its own flyers, brochures, and other collateral. They may also be working with outdated materials. By centralizing templates and design, the savings achieved by eliminating duplicate costs and content errors can be tremendous.

“Web-to-Print: Transforming Document Management and Marketing” cites two illustrative examples: MFS Investment Management saved $350,000 within the first few months of implementing Web-to-print for its 401(k) sales proposal kits, even though its fulfillment volume rose by 58 percent; and AXA Equitable reduced its production costs by $250,000 and reduced the amount of time it takes to create these materials by 60 percent.

Web-to-print-generated applications cannot only reduce costs but generate more revenue.

Savings in Print and Postage Costs

Print and postage costs can be slashed, as well. Volumes may drop because orders are occurring only on an as-needed basis. Why pay for printed documents that will only be thrown away? Large corporations may also benefit from ganging orders. Each distributor may only order 100 brochures, but the total volume may be high enough to qualify for significant postal discounts. Plus, by customizing or personalizing documents so that they contain only the information of relevance to the recipient, the number of pages in these mailings can be much smaller.

This translates into substantial savings in postage. When Tiffin University switched its student inquiry packets from 9x12-inch folders with four to six preprinted inserts to slim, highly personalized booklets printed on demand using Web-to-print, its printing and postage costs dropped by 50 percent.

Faster Response Time